A Bradman, a Maid, and a Blithe Spirit
by Loves Klaine NOT Blaine
Summary: Basically,the true story of what happened to me  Natalia  and my friend  Ariella  when we did Blithe Spirit at our school. Characters being the one's we played...
1. Excitement

Hey, I and purplepicasso1 are team writing this! And this is… well, me!

-Excitement-

Natalia

I was milling around outside waiting for Ariella. At 8:00 we were going to head to the theatre to see if we had gotten the parts in the 7th and 8th grade play, Blithe Spirit. My friend Alexandra came running up to me in excitement. "Natalia," she exclaimed. "I've just been to see the cast list!" Unable to wait any longer, I asked, "And?" She grinned hugely. "You got the part!" I whooped, and jumped in the air. My excitement toned down, though, when she told me that she hadn't gotten her part: Elvira; the feisty ghost the play was named for. But she didn't seem too bothered. She told me that she was going to be the stage manager.

Later, when I caught up with Ariella, we went to the cast list to check for her. She ran ahead of me, and suddenly I heard her screaming. "I GOT IT!" She yelled triumphantly. The list looked a bit like this:

Cast A Cast B:

Edith: Natalia Luchia

Mrs. Bradman: Ariella Marley

Dr. Bradman: Georgie John

Charles: Ethan Ash

Ruth: Julia Anne

Madame Arcati: Ellie Healy

Elvira: Taylor Cassie

We cheered, and raced backstage to get our scripts. "Congratulations," Mr. Iceberg, our drama teacher said, smiling. I was floating on air for the rest of the morning, unable to concentrate in class, and looking through my script every chance I got. I could hardly wait for our first rehearsal.

Right after school, I ran to the gym and checked to newly posted rehearsal schedule. I had a rehearsal on Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday. I sprinted to the car, where my mom was waiting. I couldn't wait to let her know!

Ariella

So, I got the part.

And now it was time to come back to the real world; namely not theater, but Math Class!

I was sitting in the back of the room, in between my two friends(ish) Elliot and Peterson, shivering under the open window and doodling. I watched the clock move painfully slowly, and then looked up at the blackboard to find my teacher staring at me.

She didn't say anything, but the message was clear. Pay attention.

And so I forced myself out of the painful slouch that my teenage spine was now accustomed to, tore my eyes away from that cursed clock, and stared at the board until I'd gone a little bit teary-eyed from lack of blinking. Peterson poked me with an all - too - sharp pencil.

"Stop," I turned to him with a barely suppressed glare and rubbed my wrist in an over dramatic way. He grinned.

"I don't get the math problem-" His sentence was cut off, but I got the general idea of the last word. Nerd.

Well that was what I was, wasn't it?

As I mulled this over in a crush of frustration that the time was flowing as thick as molasses, and a jittery kind of star - studded excitement that was entirely new to me (and it wouldn't be the last time, either), the clock happened to pick up on my murderous feelings and struck eleven forty - five just as the teacher wrapped the class up.

"... And I expect you to bring your homework sets in tomorrow. The extra credit is due on Thursday and the test is Friday!"

"Crap", I muttered, but was recovered from my bad mood when moments later, Natalia came rushing toward me from the opposite hall.

"Ariella!"

"What?" A gust of fall air blew at my hair, and I had to yank it away from my face so that I could see her clearly.

"Let's go check out the cast list," She hurried on, and I had to jog to keep up. The cast list wouldn't change, we both knew, but still - there was something so thrilling, and so alien, about sitting there near the list, talking about a play that had so many wonderful actors in it but seemed to be specially for us, that I would've been content to sit there throughout the rest of the day. Unfortunately, life had other plans for me.

The bell rang. "See you tomorrow - at play practice" I quipped and Natalia grinned. We headed in opposite directions, both of us smiling madly and neither having any idea just what an adventure the next few months would be.


	2. Robin

**So yeah… obviously I am Natalia and purplepicaso1 is Ariella…..**

Robin

**Natalia**

Three weeks later or so I walked into rehearsal to find a surprise: there were chairs all over the stage! The people who had already arrived were 5taking them off. What was more surprising was one boy that was helping. It was Robin Goodfell, a ninth grader. Although Robin didn't know it, I had a grudge against him ever since last year. We were both in the school's Glee club. Our teacher Mrs. Hearth thought that Robin was such a good singer that she overlooked everyone else. And he was extremely arrogant about it, too.

"What's _he _doing here?" I hissed at Ariella. She glanced at Robin and shrugged. "No idea," she answered. I rolled my eyes and turned toward the stage. There was only one chair left. Robin appeared to notice it at the same time. "I'll get that one…" he said. Pointedly, I stalked over to the stage and grabbed it. When I turned around, I almost bumped into Robin. "…or Natalia will," he finished lamely. I almost dropped the chair in surprise. He knew my name? I mean, I guess he had heard Mrs. Hearth say it a bazillion times, but still… _he knows my name? _I walked to the closet and put the chair away.

"Okay!" Mr. Iceberg said, clapping his hands. We all sat down in the semi-circle of chairs. "So, everyone, this is Robin Goodfell. He's in ninth grade, and is going to be our assistant stage manager, because Alexandra can't be here all the time. Robin cocked is head and smiled in that irritatingly arrogant way. I frowned and narrowed my eyes at him. When he glanced at me, his smile faltered.

Gritting my teeth but feeling slightly more cheerful, I claimed on stage with the rest of my cast.

**Ariella**

I was about to go onstage, and it was four fifteen on the dot; my palms were sweating slightly. It was the first day of non – open book rehearsals, and Mr. Iceberg, being the director that he was, would not stand for massive blunders on the very first day.

And of course, the fact that Natalia kept shoot ice dagger stares at Robin, who was seemingly "oblivious" to her except for the occasional lightning – quick smirk, was not doing wonders for my concentration.

I sighed. "Stop staring," I whispered, jabbing Natalia's knee. "You're being a little embarrassing."

"So is he."

"Only because you're provoking him; I'm sure that if you stopped, so would he."

As usual, Natalia declined to listen to the sweet voice of reason. "He _started it_." She said firmly; perhaps a little bit too firmly, because Mr. Iceberg seemed to have noticed us. I poked her again. "All right no more "funny stuff"", I snapped, infusing my voice with sarcasm. Just as cast B stepped off stage.

"Your turn, cast A." Mr. Iceberg called from upstage, and we marched onto the steps. A slight hum, the hum of nervousness (also known to be experienced during math finals, standardized "quizzes", and awkward doctor's appointments) set the backdrop to the opening lines.

"Very good, Edith…" Natalia marched onstage, partly because I pushed her forward, snapping her out of a particularly sharp glare at Robin. "You're up," I mouthed. She grinned and sauntered toward center – stage.

I was a jangle of line – nerves when it was time for me to get onstage. The lights were really bright, but as I walked through my lines, almost robotically (there's a first time for everything, right?); I realized just how informal this practice was.

Which meant that in the time between onstage rehearsals, I could focus on more important things; namely my own personal quest. This involved Natalia, Robin, and some way that I could get them to stop hating on each other… Because really, if they couldn't, wasn't the whole play really at a loss?

Besides, it wasn't a lost cause. Because I knew Natalia _and_ Robin (well not really but kind of – ish), and it appeared that Natalia's vendetta against Robin Goodfell was precariously close to a crush.


	3. Tech DayFirst Performance:Middle School

Tech Day

**Natalia**

My palms were sweating heavily, and I was nervous. I knew that this rehearsal was very important, and tricky. It was also the _only _rehearsal where Mr. Iceberg was going to be paying more attention to our Tech crew than to us actors.

We were also only running the play through once, which meant that Luchia and I had to split up the scenes we would do. She did the opening scene, so that she could practice her leg kick. I, on the other hand, did what we fondly *snort* called the "Scream-Scene". I have to come in, pick up a heavy tray, turn to walk out, scream, and drop it, while running off-stage. Not pleasant for a girl who had never screamed until a few weeks ago.

I watched in silent irritation as Mr. Iceberg kept stopping the run-through for one tech problem or another. The only cheerful thought I had was that he wasn't yelling at the actors. There was one rehearsal where we spent an entire study hall and about an hour after school working on the falling table part. I, of course wasn't in that scene, so all I could do was sit and wait silently and watch them struggle through it, with only a bag of chips to keep me company. Ariella was up on stage and Robin was too focused on what was going on to talk. Yes, as you may have realized, Ariella succeeded in getting me to stop hating Robin. In fact, to my surprise, I even had a slight crush on him.

But anyway… that day, Mr. Iceberg got so mad at us, er, excuse me… _them… _that he called off rehearsal. He told us to all go home, so, naturally, we all went to after-school. I felt like that would've been the time to say "No, Mr. Iceberg, let us stay and do it again, we'll get it right!" However I was in no place to say that, seeing as it wasn't an Edith scene. I called my mom, half crying, even though I had done nothing wrong, and told her to pick me up early. She didn't ask why, just said she would meet me in the after school room.

I walked there, shoulder to shoulder with Alexandra and Robin. "We may have to start cutting people," She said, matter-of-factly. I thought that this may have been a little extreme, but I kept my thoughts to myself. I figured that Mr. Iceberg wasn't about to start dropping cast members this late into the process.

Once we got there, we signed in, and sat on the tables. Our discussion turned to Harry Potter. It was only then that I realized Ariella wasn't there. _She must've gone home already, _I thought. My mom picked me up a few minutes later, to my disappointment. It was fun sitting down and arguing about who knew the most spells with Alexandra, Robin, and Ethan.

So basically, yeah, you can see why I was much happier with Mr. Iceberg yelling at the crew than us. Finally, I got to go on for a moment, to collect the coffee cups. I hurried off stage and gratefully handed it over to Robin, who placed it in the sink.

Walking past the costume racks, another memory sparked in my mind. My friend Abigail and I needed to ask Robin something about chorus, a few days earlier. I figured that he would be chilling out in the theater, so that's where we headed. Once we got outside, I stopped. "We need a good excuse to go in there. Saying we are looking for a ninth grade boy who may not even be here will not cut it." She nodded in agreement, I stopped to think. Of course! Alexandra had left a paining she had done back here the day before. She called it her Shiny. "We'll say we were looking for Alex's Shiny!" I exclaimed. Abigail didn't even ask, hurried inside with me. It was dark in the front part of the theatre. "I don't think he's here," I told her. But we continued on, because it was unlikely that he would be in the front anyway. We walked through the dark room until we got to the side door that leads into the back. "Damn, I hope it's not locked," I muttered. I pushed on it. It wasn't.

We hurried inside. I was just about to say, "Let's go. He's not here," when a head rose from behind the costume racks. A very familiar head… Abigail and I both started laughing hysterically. Robin stepped away and turned to us. He didn't look surprised, or confused at out hysterics. I grabbed Alexandra's Shiny, and we settled down to ask Robin whatever question we were going to ask him.

_Ah, good times, _I thought, but was jolted out of my thoughts by the whole cats streaming in backstage for our "intermission" which was going to be a little short, just longer enough for us to do costume changes.

First performance: Middle School

**Ariella**

My palms were sweating a bit when I went backstage during the intermission, making it difficult to slip into my second – act costume. On my third try, I managed to stuff my feet into my shiny, high heeled Mary Janes. I emerged from the dressing room slightly flushed and jittery. Both Robin and Natalia, who were already setting up shop on the stage, turned to look at me quizzically.

"Jitters!" I exclaimed and started wringing my hands. Natalia joined me, and Robin shook his head, shooting us a look of mild sympathy.

"You'll get used to it by the second or third show," he said.

"Oh boy, _that's_ comforting." I muttered. "You know, considering we're only doing three shows and all," My rant was about to continue when Alexandra came charging through the costume area, yelling "places, places!" To anyone who would listen. And in the midst of a mad scramble for props and hair – spray for the second act, Natalia, Robin and I remained calm, laughing hysterically at Alexandra's frazzled expression. I knew right then that no matter how badly I messed up in my next scene, and no matter how embarrassed I was as the entire middle school stared up at me or giggled as I recited my lines, I would be able to laugh it off backstage, or know that the next show could be better.

With a pleased sigh, I rolled my shoulders back and picked up a script. Natalia and I quizzed each other on lines, recalled blocking, and were about to rest when I spotted them.

The sugar cubes.

"Yes!" For no reason at all, just to burn off nervous energy, I leapt toward the cubes like they were life preservers in the middle of an ocean, with Natalia right beside me.

"No! Careful- those are for –" Robin didn't finish his warning, because Natalia and I had reached the sugar cubes and were both stuffing I small handful into our mouths.

"Ha." Natalia said just loud enough for Robin to hear. He shrugged, looking resigned. "You guys are insane," he quipped. Natalia and I just gave him our biggest, most immature grins and sauntered off to the stage stairs. A minute later, Natalia was given her cue and appeared on the stage as I fiddled around backstage.

When she came back, Natalia didn't even pick at Robin. Instead, we both helped him chop a few cucumbers for the next scene's sandwiches.

I had to admit that with a little bit of pushing and prying, and some carefully spaced encounters (some courtesy of yours truly), she had grown to accept – and even befriend – Robin. Which was good, seeing as he basically organized everything backstage.

As I mulled over the possibilities of this new found friendship, Natalia came up behind me and whispered that in a few minutes, I was going on.

"Good luck," she said.

"Thanks," I replied.

A moment later, I was situated on the stage, and for some reason it seemed comforting to be there – to know that the whole play was running so smoothly.


	4. Opening Night

**Eeeeee, story's almost over! -_-**

Thursday: Opening Night

**Natalia**

Oh great. It was opening night, and I was scared stiff. Of course, we had already done a performance for the middle school, but still. Today was actually a freakishly long day. We had to be at the theatre at eight in the morning for Cast B's performance for the lower school. Then we had normal classes, study hall until three, and then school was over. But we play people had to either go to the theatre or the library.

Now, I haven't explained what happens when you put me, Steven, Robin, Ethan and Matt in a room together. (Just in case you're wondering, Steven and Matt are on crew.) Well, this is the product: Three guys running about the risers all trying to kill each other, one guy playing loud rap music from his laptop, and one girl, laughing hysterically while helping Robin get the other two. Throw in a director who somehow does _not _hear all the yelling, and you have a recipe for disaster. And in my dictionary, disaster is a synonym for fun. So yeah, you can imagine what happened then. I don't think they ever found Ethan's history report…

But now, we weren't running. We were sitting in full costume, finishing our exercises. They were supposed to relax us, but I felt just as nervous as ever. And to make it worse, my Aunt was coming, and I could only imagine what she would say when she heard me say _The Line. _And if you don't know what _The Line _is, get a copy of the play, and read Edith's last line in act three. Combine that with my Aunt, and…you get the picture.

But Mr. Iceberg didn't just send us off after our last relaxation thingy was done. Instead, he began passing out envelopes. There were hand-written letters for all of us from him. I later learned that everyone's was different and they all were from the heart. I'm not going to tell you about mine, because it's too personal. What I will tell you is that it nearly made me cry. The only reason I didn't let myself was because I was in makeup, and was going on in like, five minutes. Crying would be a pretty bad idea now. Ariella agreed.

Other girls cried, though. Robin said that that was natural, but that he didn't cry. I looked at him funny. He told me he wasn't much of a crier. Shrugging, I grabbed my tray-well, Robin handed it to me-and took my position at the door. My heart beat quickly as the light above my head went down, and then came back on. Then I listened as Julia strode onto stage. Leaning my ear against the door, I determined when she was at the window. Then I opened the door, walked out, and didn't drop anything. Opening night had begun.

…

Opening night had begun, all right, but we ran into a few issues along the way. For one, Georgie lost his ring. He kept flipping it in the air, and finally it landed under the stage. Apparently Robin had to crawl under and get it. I wish I had seen that. But I was on stage at that point, so I didn't. Anyway, Georgie's antics didn't stop there. Next, he was up and running I the gym. Yes, the gym I connected to the theatre, so that's where he went. This meant finding rope, and tying him down into the _other _wingchair. It was the wingchair we used to have on the stage, but it was too tall, and blocked the Drinks Table. But it was sooooo comfy! I was pretty mad. So was just about everyone else.

Meanwhile, we had found a box of cookies in the storage room. And you know what that means… but I'll let Ariella tell you that. Yes, we were always hungry. Ariella and I continued eating sugar cubes… but it wasn't the same. I really wanted real food now. Candy was one thing, but sugar is just… sugar. My mom was working backstage during intermission one night, and I begged her to bring me something from the snack table. But she knew we weren't allowed to have food in costume… so she said no. I frowned. I was _starving_!

**Ariella**

Opening night, and… Wow.

I looked around me, but we were so tired and sugar – freaked (oh my, were those sugar cookies delicious!) that Natalia and I were sort of doing that thing where you laugh at everything, even the stupidest stuff. I was trying to tap dance in my four – inch heels, which was a disaster, and everyone was cracking up; especially me.

How could I not, when I was almost giddy with relief? I felt so cool, it was like we'd actually _done _it – the play, I mean. Because we had done it and it was really good, and now we could be crazy because the curtain was down and the audience wouldn't be able to hear us anyway.

Man, if this was the way backstage was on Broadway, I was _so _having a part of it!

Natalia and I headed to the dressing rooms, where she helped me pull the bobby pins (several million) out of my hair, and we washed the heavy blush (you don't even want to know) off our faces, which took a while. We changed, and when we came back out of the room, a strange scene lay before us:

Robin was turned away from us, his back hunched in concentration, while he stared at the computer screen on Mr. Iceberg's desk. He was sort of shaking his fist at it, and muttering profanities, and our fellow cast members were following suit. I looked at Natalia for an explanation, and she shrugged, looking just as confused as I was.

We came closer, and in a burst of insight, I crouched behind Robin, waving a finger at Natalia so she wouldn't make a sound. I leapt from behind him with a Tarzan – esque battle cry. Robin was sort of paralyzed – looking for a minute, and then he collapsed into hysterics. One by one we all followed, until a few minutes later, the entire cast was unable to speak and in giggle fits.

When I had recovered my voice, I turned toward Robin.

"What're you doing with the computer?" I cocked an eyebrow, trying to look detective-y.

"You have to see this," Julia said from the back of the crowd. Others nodded.

"Obstructing private property is a federal crime," Natalia said.

Robin quickly explained. "Y'see, you press this to "sleep" the computer, right?" He pressed a button. We nodded.

"And this to turn it off?" he pressed another, and the computer went dark. We nodded, and a moment later, the computer's lights began blinking, and it flashed on.

We spent the rest of the evening trying to "exorcise" that computer, using everything from big sticks (Julia's idea) to magic spells (Robin's idea).


End file.
